Paperboy and Tapper

[alexd74]

Hi,
As I understand it, Groovymame sets custom resolutions (256x224) for games like Frogger and Galaxian, which work perfectly in my setup.  Two games so far that have similarly weird native resolutions (or are they native for midres?) are Paperboy (512x384) and Tapper (512x480).  Is there a way without using hardware scaling (which looks terrible) or high interlaced resolutions (which flicker) to get them looking better at lower resolutions like with Frogger or Galaxian?
Thanks,
Alex.

[adder]

hi galaxian, frogger, etc cant be compared to games like tapper  (mame reports weird resolutions for those games, but just ignore that.  galaxian, frogger etc are low res 256x224)

for tapper and other games (eg. rampage) which are 480 (interlace) lines high, i recommend using a low res mode instead, of 240 lines high. because we are exactly halving the height (plus rampage and tapper dont have vertical scrolling in them, maybe that helps? ), the results are excellent (see tapper and rampage pics i took below which are all low res flicker free 240 lines high using my crt tv)  by the way i probably should mention at this point i am using direct3d, bilinear filter on, and bitmap prescaling set to 1

note: using my crt tv i do have scanlines but my digital camera never seems to pick them up (i expect because im not close to the screen), plus my shaky hands probably dont help matters (which makes the pictures look blurry)

paperboy and other 384 (interlaced) lines high games are tricky, because 384 halved would be 192 (low res), which (at least for me) results in large black borders at the top and bottom of the screen (see first and second paperboy pics below). personally, i just run paperboy using a low res mode 256 lines high (see last pic), again using direct3d, bilinear filter on, and bitmap prescaling set to 1. it's certainly not perfect but i just settle for it, rather than using interlace mode.  actually, i did notice just now that paperboy definately looks and scrolls better using the low res 192 lines high screen mode (because we are scaling by exactly half).... but dammit those top and bottom borders are pretty big, and at the moment it's way too wide also ...

[alexd74]

Thanks Jadder,
I got all excited reading your post and to try direct3d with the options you mentioned.  However it seems my ArcadeVGA card does not like running direct3d in low resolutions!  It works at 640x480 but as soon as I try a low res like x240 it is just a black screen....  DirectDraw works fine.
Any ideas??

[adder]

i dont own or have used an arcadevga card, i would need more information:
1. what version of windows are you using
2. is your directx setup ok (ie. no problems?) and up to date (if using windows xp should be directx version 9.0c)
3. did you install the actual arcadevga drivers, or do you have standard ati drivers installed?
4. have a check that switchres 1 is set in mame.ini

edit: another test you can do:   try installing regular official mameui so you are using default settings, then with direct3d on, bilinear filter on, bitmap prescaling set at 1, switch resolutions to fit (switchres) on, try running tapper in a low res fullscreen 240 mode (eg. 512x240), now see if u get an image.  if still no luck, perhaps means a directx setup problem or arcadevga/drivers problem rather than a mame settings problem

[Sledge]

Not sure if this will fix your issue but with ArcadeVGA you must use these settings:
lock_system_modes 0
refresh_dont_care 1

[alexd74]

Thanks for the help here.
I get an image, although quite badly reduced/compressed/resized) now when I set cleanstretch to 0.  I have reset my mame.ini and now just have the following in paperboy.ini:

switchres 1
lock_system_modes 0
refresh_dont_care 1
video d3d
prescaling 1
filter 1
changeres 0
modeline 0
cleanstretch 0

How does that look?  I am downloading mameui now to test that.

[Calamity]

Hi,
As I understand it, Groovymame sets custom resolutions (256x224) for games like Frogger and Galaxian, which work perfectly in my setup.  Two games so far that have similarly weird native resolutions (or are they native for midres?) are Paperboy (512x384) and Tapper (512x480).  Is there a way without using hardware scaling (which looks terrible) or high interlaced resolutions (which flicker) to get them looking better at lower resolutions like with Frogger or Galaxian?
Thanks,
Alex.

Tapper run originally at an interlaced resolution. So GroovyMAME is being accurate here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/178226-popeye-unusually-high-resolution-for-an-early-80s-arcade-game/

Regarding Paperboy, it uses an "EGA" resolution, so GroovyMAME tries using the highest possible one in order to stretch, and that means an interlaced resolution.

If you want to avoid the use of interlaced resolutions, you can just disable the interlace option in mame.ini. This will force GroovyMAME to use only progressive resolutions, even when stretching is required.